When starting a new business one of the most important things to establish is proper branding. Branding is more than just a great looking logo or any other type of graphic element. Essentially your brand is what every customer you deal with encounters from first to final contact with your company. From your logo, website, social media, phone calls, meetings to your email frequency, the way your staff interacts with customers and even how clean your office or retail space is helps to establish your brand.

Thinking of proper branding in such a broad way might seem slightly overwhelming, but it’s important to consider because it’s the way your customers and vendors perceive you and your business. Overall, brand experience is a very big part of establishing proper branding, and unfortunately it’s not something that just happens but is strategically planned out.

Proper Branding For Small Businesses

Small businesses and start-ups don’t always spend the time and allocate the attention they should to thinking about proper branding and how it affects their business. Here are a few reasons why proper branding is important:

Brand Recognition: Building a strong brand and ensuring it remains consistent across all of your customer’s experiences with your company is a great way to build brand recognition. This is important because customers have more trust in brands they’re familiar with, which means there is a higher chance they will purchase your products or use your services.

Se Yourself Apart: The consumer landscape hasn’t been exclusively local for a long time now and building a strong brand is a good way to separate your business from local and global competition.

Generate Referrals: People have always been social animals and with the exponential growth of social media platforms it’s even easier for them to discuss their brand experiences. Ensuring that your customers have a positive experience with your brand and company will prompt them to share their experience socially. The caveat is that if their experience is negative then they’re even more likely to share their negative brand experience. Simply put, positive experiences lead to referrals and negative ones lead to diminished branding.

Proper Branding = Emotional Connections: Making an emotional connection with your customers is the ultimate goal of every brand. This emotional connection means that people feel very strongly about their interactions with your brand such as making purchases and employing services. Emotional connections lead to brand advocates who do their best to promote your brand on your behalf.

Business Value: Proper branding helps create a strong brand that adds value to your business. If you think about the value in companies like Coca Cola, Nike, or Apple they’re worth a lot more than just the physical assets they possess. Over time their brands have grown in popularity and have continuously been strengthened by their marketing efforts and customer experiences. As a result their branding is one of the most valuable pieces of their company.

Overall proper branding is develop from a strong initial idea that you and your employees understand, commit to and provide services and products upon. Proper branding filters throughout an entire business, and when your entire organization buys into your brand your customer have a better chance of doing the same.

For more information about branding or if you need help creating a brand for your company contact Toronto Marketing Network today at 647-205-3935 or info@torontomarketingnetwork.com